Lorraine Williamson
Severe thunderstorms have battered parts of Valencia province, bringing hail and violent wind gusts of up to 149 km/h as a major change in Spain’s weather takes hold. The worst conditions have affected La Ribera and neighbouring areas, where emergency crews have responded to dozens of incidents involving fallen trees and structural damage.
The strongest reported gust was recorded at Sumacàrcer, where the Associació Valenciana de Meteorologia (Avamet) measured 149 km/h. Winds reached 143 km/h at Alzira, 125 km/h at Corbera and 114 km/h at l’Alcúdia.
AEMET had placed parts of the Comunitat Valenciana under weather warnings on Thursday, cautioning that thunderstorms could bring hail and very strong wind gusts. The agency’s warnings covered areas of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia during the afternoon and evening.
Storm causes damage across La Ribera
The short-lived but exceptionally powerful storms produced what meteorologists describe as wet downbursts, or reventones húmedos. These occur when a mass of air descends rapidly from a thunderstorm and spreads out on reaching the ground, producing sudden and potentially destructive winds.
At Alzira, part of the roof of the Santa Catalina church collapsed during the storm, exposing part of the dome. No injuries were reported. Trees were also brought down, while firefighters dealt with more than 50 weather-related incidents across the affected area.
The storm also brought an extraordinary fall in temperature. At Polinyà de Xúquer, temperatures reportedly dropped from 37.7C to 18.1C as the storm passed, a fall of almost 20 degrees in a short period. AEMET recorded 21.4 litres of rain per square metre there, including 14.1 litres in ten minutes, while winds reached 94 km/h.
Weather change spreads across Spain
The storms form part of the wider change in conditions forecast across Spain this week after another period of intense summer heat.
Spain’s Protección Civil maintained its weather alert on Thursday for widespread rain across northern and eastern mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands. A trough crossing the peninsula is bringing cooler air, greater atmospheric instability and the possibility of locally strong thunderstorms.
The unsettled weather is expected to continue into Friday in parts of the Cantabrian region, north-east Spain and the Balearics, although showers are forecast to become more scattered. Conditions could become more unstable again during the weekend, particularly around the Cantabrian coast and north-east of the peninsula.
AEMET advises people in areas affected by severe thunderstorms to follow current weather warnings, particularly because intense storms can develop quickly and bring hail and damaging wind even where rainfall totals are relatively modest.